The fact the Brownies have a breathtaking punt returner in Travis Benjamin surely helped, too.

The Browns improved to 3-2 -- the first time they’ve won three of their first five games since 2001. Seriously.

The Bills fell back to familiar territory for the first week of October, at 2-3.

Both starting quarterbacks got knocked out of this game with right-knee injuries before the end of the third quarter -- Brian Hoyer on Cleveland’s second possession of the game, EJ Manuel midway through the third quarter while leading the Bills on a second consecutive classy drive to go ahead 24-17.

The preliminary diagnosis on Hoyer, Cleveland head coach Rob Chudzinski said afterward, is a knee sprain. He’ll have an MRI Friday.

Hoyer’s backup Weeden, the demoted 2012 first-round draft pick, was mostly terrible until Buffalo took that 24-17 lead in the third. He was booed soundly after his first two passes of the game -- completions far over everybody’s heads to empty green grass.

Too bad those kinds of completions don’t count in football.

While Weeden struggled, the Bills could have -- and should have -- capitalized and built up a substantial lead. But Manuel and the offence went ice-cold in the second quarter, and Browns punt-returner Benjamin caught fire.

By far the most exciting player in this game for Cleveland, the speedy gizmo turned more corners on the Bills punt-coverage unit than A.J. Foyt at the Brickyard.

On two breathtaking returns before halftime, Benjamin returned Shawn Powell punts 57 yards (to set up a 30-yard Billy Cundiff field goal) and, after Cleveland had tied it 10-10 on a one-yard run by Willis McGahee, 79 yards for the go-ahead touchdown, 2:20 before halftime.

Benjamin caught the latter punt near the sideline.

“We knew that (Powell) just wanted to kick the ball out of bounds and kick it away from me,” said the 5-foot-10, 175-pound second-year man. “I knew once I caught the ball that I had great special-team blocks and they were going to get me a crease.”

Manuel got hurt while scrambling for a first down deep in Cleveland territory. His right leg was in the air when a Cleveland defender slammed hard into it, as Manuel had opted to stay in bounds, probably unsure whether he’d gained enough ground to get the first down. He had.

Manuel stayed down briefly, attended to by the Bills’ medical staff. He limped to the Bills bench, then paced back and forth a few minutes later behind the bench, apparently OK. He even jogged back and forth. It looked like he might go back in.

Afterward, Bills head coach Doug Marrone said Manuel had sprained the knee.

“I saw him working out on the sideline (and) thought we probably could get him back,” Marrone said. “And then they shut him down and said, ‘Hey, listen. We’re not going to put him back in there.’

“We’re going to take a good look at it when we get back to Buffalo.”

By that point in the game, Bills wide receiver Stevie Johnson had already left the game for good after suffering a back injury. Later, wide receiver T.J. Graham left with an injury.

It’s clear from Tuel’s play that he is every bit as raw, and unready to play, as you’d expect from an undrafted rookie quarterback.

It’s a stinging indictment that Bills GM Doug Whaley as well as Doug Marrone and his coaches believed Tuel could step in and win a game for the Bills in place of Manuel in such a circumstance.

He can’t. Or at least couldn’t on this night.

“It’s the situation of any backup quarterback in the league,” Tuel said afterward. “You have to be ready to go when your number is called and perform at a high level.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had any live bullets like that. Especially against ‘ones’ like that.”

Hey, it’s not the kid’s fault. He tried his best. Just as it wouldn’t be our fault if the Bills hired you or me to back up Manuel.

But if the Bills had a decent journeyman backup QB, they might be 3-2 right now, not 2-3.

Evidently, Tuel’s awful play in such a replacement circumstance in the third preseason game at Washington wasn’t enough evidence for Bills brass. Remember how Tuel could barely complete a pass in that game, with Manuel out, and the Bills protected him by running it repeatedly? And now we know just how bad that Redskins secondary is.

This loss had better compel the Bills to sign a quality backup to Manuel. Like, immediately. And not 72-hour rent-a-passers, such as Matt Leinart and Theo Lewis in August.

As for Manuel, he appeared to be gaining in confidence on those two third-quarter touchdown drives. For the first time this season, perhaps, he appeared comfortable completing passes from both I-formation and shotgun-spread formations.

It’s unclear how long he might be out with this knee injury this time. There are NFL-calibre backups out of work. One became available on Thursday afternoon, when the Tampa Bay Bucs released Josh Freeman.

The Bills should be on the phone to him, ASAP. Or someone else who has played in and won NFL games at quarterback.

Manuel’s injury was the turning point of this game.

The Browns charged right back down the field to tie it, 24-24. Weeden finally found his rhythm, displaying his first-round arm on two sharply thrown passes. The second was a deep lob to Josh Gordon, who bobbled the ball in the end zone -- much like he’d dropped a sure touchdown on a long bomb from Hoyer on the second play of the game -- but he regained possession before ra-ta-tapping both feet in at the back of the end zone.

“It takes time,” said Weeden, who was unable to play with a thumb injury the past two weeks while Hoyer led the Browns to two victories after an 0-2 start. “That’s a pretty complex defence, good front four. I was a little rusty coming out of the chute, overthrowing routes.

“There’s no excuses. I have to come in and operate. We have to run the offence just like we installed it all week.”

Chudzinksi said he “expected” Weeden to make plays upon his insertion. He meant it.

That’s the difference.

Tuel remained in the game on Buffalo’s next possession, after Manuel jogged to the Bills locker room to have his knee further examined.

After a short run into an of-course stacked Browns defence, Tuel threw two woeful incompletions. One was a a flea-flicker, which he hurled deep into double coverage and was fortunate not to be picked off.

In the fourth quarter Weeden led the Browns deep into Bills territory again, and Cundiff gave them a 27-24 lead with a 24-yard field goal.

Buffalo’s next two brief drives produced one first down, as Tuel appeared yet more feeble, to the delight of most of the 71,239 at FirstEnergy Stadium.

By game’s end Tuel completed only two passes to wideouts -- each for nine yards. His other six completions were short dumpoffs to runnings backs or tight end Scott Chandler.

Late in the fourth quarter, Weeden led the Browns 31 yards in eight plays on another short field, resulting in another Cundiff field goal, this one from 44 yards out. It gave Cleveland a 30-24 lead.

Buffalo got the ball back with 2:19 remaining, at its 20, needing a touchdown to win.

Only a naïve child at that point would have held out any hope that Tuel could lead a long winning drive without some fluky help. It didn’t come.

The Washington State grad did complete a couple of short passes. Then, after the two-minute warning, he threw a medium-depth slant left to rookie wideout Robert Woods. Tuel did not see that Cleveland’s strong safety T.J. Ward was lurking in that throwing lane.

Ward easily jumped in front and intercepted the pass. He jogged 44 yards for the game-sealing pick-six, with 1:44 left.